Every week, dozens of new games appear on the App Store, but only a few make it to the top of the free charts. We’ve selected five projects that are currently occupying the top spots in the rankings and deserve at least a try. Strategies, puzzles, zombie action — the genres vary, and each one is definitely worth downloading and giving a chance.
Have you checked the top free games in the App Store recently?
Whiteout Survival — A Mobile Strategy Game in Russian
Whiteout Survival (original name — Whiteout Survival) is a massive strategy game where you lead the last bastion of civilization amid a global ice age. A fierce blizzard has destroyed the familiar world, and survivors have huddled together in a tiny settlement. Your task is not just to rebuild a city, but to make sure people don’t freeze, starve, or perish from wild animal attacks.
You’ll have to survive in snow and storms
The main feature of the game is the temperature management mechanic. This isn’t just decoration: if you don’t fire up the furnace and provide warmth to your residents in time, they’ll start getting sick and dying. At the same time, you need to build hunting cabins, sawmills, residential buildings and distribute the workforce among facilities. Every resident is a valuable resource, and their condition (health, mood, hunger) directly affects base development.
Controls on iPhone follow the classic mobile strategy scheme: taps to select buildings and units, swipes to navigate the map. Thanks to idle mechanics, the game doesn’t require constant attention — you can send heroes on a mission, exit, and return to ready rewards. This is convenient if you don’t have time for multi-hour sessions. The project has already amassed over 300 million downloads worldwide, and the game is fully translated into Russian.
Z Route: Redemption — Zombie Action for iPhone with Quick Runs
Z Route: Redemption is a completely different format. There’s no leisurely city-building here: your squad of survivors continuously moves along the highway, shooting down hordes of zombie mutants. The game cleverly combines endless runner and roguelike mechanics — each run is unique, and at crossroads, portals await with tactical decisions.
You’ve probably seen similar games in ads many times
The concept is simple: assemble a balanced squad (two tanks up front, three damage dealers in the rear), upgrade equipment, and push as far as possible. Along the way, you’ll encounter powerful bosses, and each one requires quick reflexes. If you die — you start over, but with accumulated experience and understanding of which hero combinations work best.
There’s a nuance with controls on iPhone. The game is very dynamic, and on a small screen, fingers periodically block the view during the most intense combat moments. Swipes and taps are responsive, but on difficult levels, there’s a lack of positioning precision — this is a genre feature, not a bug. If you have an iPad, playing will be more comfortable.
Tiles Survive! — A Mobile Strategy About a Survivors’ Shelter
Tiles Survive! is another survival strategy, but with an original twist. Instead of the usual open map, here you explore the world by uncovering tile after tile. Each tile is a new biome with unique resources, dangers, or rewards.
Here you’ll also need to focus on survival and settlement development
You lead a team of survivors and build a shelter that gradually grows into a self-sufficient settlement. You need to assign professions to residents (hunter, cook, lumberjack), monitor their health and morale, and connect electricity to buildings to speed up production. The hero system adds depth: each character has their own skills and traits that affect the shelter’s efficiency.
Controls are intuitive and well-adapted for touchscreen. The main actions are taps on tiles for exploration and dragging elements during construction. The interface isn’t cluttered, although as your base develops, menus become increasingly complex. The game runs smoothly even on older iPhones. It’s actively updated: the latest patch with the “Birth of a Legend” event came out just recently.
Sheep Dash — A Puzzle with Simple Controls
Against the backdrop of tough strategies, Sheep Dash looks like something very unusual and standing out from the general trend. It’s a casual puzzle where you need to release cute sheep and chicks from an overcrowded pen. Sounds primitive, but in practice — you’ll need to engage your logic to the fullest.
A cool puzzle where you need to herd all the sheep into the pen
Each animal faces a certain direction and moves only straight ahead. Your task is to determine the correct sequence: which one to release first so you don’t block the others. In early levels, everything is obvious, but by the hundredth level, the puzzles become truly tricky. Animals stack up, new types with special behavior appear, and a wrong move forces you to restart the level.
Controls are extremely simple. One tap on an animal — it runs away. No swipes, gestures, or complex menus. It’s precisely this simplicity that makes Sheep Dash an ideal game for short sessions.
